Social Accounting, Auditing, and Reporting

The current stage of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting is defined by multi-stakeholder initiatives. An increasing number of stakeholder groups are putting pressure on corporations to act responsibly. More CSR reporting standards are being developed to address these needs. As the level of CSR reporting increases, it is important to consider if and how these CSR reporting standards are adequately addressing stakeholders’ needs.

For a business to take responsibility for its actions, that business must be fully accountable. Social accounting, a concept describing the communication of social and environmental effects of a company’s economic actions to particular interest groups within society and to society at large, is thus an important element of CSR.

Social accounting emphasizes the notion of corporate accountability. D. Crowther defines social accounting in this sense as “an approach to reporting a firm’s activities which stresses the need for the identification of socially relevant behavior, the determination of those to whom the company is accountable for its social performance and the development of appropriate measures and reporting techniques.” An example of social accounting, to a limited extent, is found in an annual Director’s Report, under the requirements of UK company law.

A number of reporting guidelines or standards have been developed to serve as frameworks for social accounting, auditing and reporting including

• AccountAbility’s AA1000 standard, based on John Elkington’s triple bottom line (3BL) reporting
• The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project’s Connected Reporting Framework
• The Fair Labor Association conducts audits based on its Workplace Code of Conduct and posts audit results on the FLA website.
• The Fair Wear Foundation takes a unique approach to verifying labour conditions in companies’ supply chains, using interdisciplinary auditing teams.
• Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
• Economy for the Common Good’s Common Good Balance Sheet
• Good Corporation’s standard developed in association with the Institute of Business Ethics
• Synergy Codethic 26000 Social Responsibility and Sustainability Commitment Management System (SRSCMS) Requirements — Ethical Business Best Practices of Organizations – the necessary management system elements to obtain a certifiable ethical commitment management system. The standard scheme has been build around ISO 26000 and UNCTAD Guidance on Good Practices in Corporate Governance. The standard is applicable by any type of organization.
• Earthcheck Certification / Standard
• Social Accountability International’s SA8000 standard
• Standard Ethics Aei guidelines
• The ISO 14000 environmental management standard
• The United Nations Global Compact requires companies to communicate on their progress (or to produce a Communication on Progress, COP), and to describe the company’s implementation of the Compact’s ten universal principles. This information should be fully integrated in the participant’s main medium of stakeholder communications, for example a corporate responsibility or sustainability report and/or an integrated financial and sustainability report. If a company does not publish formal reports, a COP can be created as a stand-alone document.
• The United Nations Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) provides voluntary technical guidance on eco-efficiency indicators, corporate responsibility reporting, and corporate governance disclosure.

The FTSE Group publishes the FTSE4Good Index, an evaluation of CSR performance of companies.

In some nations, legal requirements for social accounting, auditing and reporting exist (e.g. in the French bilan social (fr)), though international or national agreement on meaningful measurements of social and environmental performance is difficult. Many companies now produce externally audited annual reports that cover Sustainable Development and CSR issues (“Triple Bottom Line Reports”), but the reports vary widely in format, style, and evaluation methodology (even within the same industry). Critics dismiss these reports as lip service, citing examples such as Enron’s yearly “Corporate Responsibility Annual Report” and tobacco corporations’ social reports.

In South Africa, as of June 2010, all companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were required to produce an integrated report in place of an annual financial report and sustainability report. An integrated report includes environmental, social and economic performance alongside financial performance information and is expected to provide users with a more holistic overview of a company. However, this requirement was implemented in the absence of any formal or legal standards for an integrated report. An Integrated Reporting Committee (IRC) was established to issue guidelines for good practice in this field.